This invention relates to apparatus for automatically applying lubrication in a lifting device of an offshore platform, and more particularly, to apparatus for automatically applying lubrication to a pinion which meshes with a rack of the lifting device.
A conventional offshore platform of bedding and lifting type is composed of a substructure consisting of a plurality of legs, a platform, and a jack-up device provided on the platform, and the platform is raised and lowered by intermeshing of the pinions of the jack-up device with the racks provided on each leg, and rotating the pinions by a motor.
Since the platform is considerably heavy, the weight of the platform is applied directly to the intermeshing surfaces of the racks and pinions in lifting or lowering the platform, thereby increasing the contact pressure. As a result, the racks and pinions are greatly damaged by the friction at the time of their intermeshing.
To prevent this, lubricant such as grease is conventionally applied to the intermeshing surfaces of the racks with a brush or a roller brush.
However, when lubricant is manually applied with a brush or a roller brush, it is difficult to constantly apply it uniformly, and much labor and time is required. Furthermore, the working atmosphere requires lubricant to be applied from above the frame of the jack-up device, and therefore it is difficult to apply lubricant when the platform is lowered.